Cry Liberty By Peter C. Hoffer Summary

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Cry Liberty: The Great Stono-River Slave Rebellion of 1739 was written by Professor Peter C. Hoffer, who taught as a historian at the University of Georgia. This novel is a brief, yet very informative piece of work that provides a re-examination of a series of incidents that occurred during the Stono Rebellion (which transpired on September 9, 1739). This rebellion manifested once a group of about 20 slaves had broken into a store alongside the Stono River, nearby Charles Town, which is now known as Charleston, South Carolina. The author did an excellent job recreating events in this book and developing the question of whether or not it was actually a rebellion. Hoffer was very descriptive with his words which gave the readers a good visualization of everything that was happening during that time. He also used a great deal of sources to cite where he was getting his information from. Not only did he use a great deal of sources, he even used a great deal of his imagination as well. From the very beginning of the novel, Hoffer questioned the assumption that the …show more content…

He challenged this assumption by arguing that historians and South Carolina officials had written the result of the Stono Rebellion in reverse. Many of the historians and officials had assumed that there was a competent conspiracy theory to rebel before the violence even erupted. Hoffer again disagreed with this assumption. After analyzing the many causes that could’ve started the rebellion, the author came across many shortcomings and deficiencies of the traditional conspiracy theories that many individuals believe caused the rebellion. Hoffer imagined the experiences that the slaves had went through, and in doing so he was able to come up with a much more credible and reasonable explanation for the actions and repercussions that caused the only slave revolt in British North

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